A blog dedicated to documenting my progression as a hobbyist, and my eternal indecision about what to paint next!

Friday 20/01/2012 – We’re baaaaaack!

Greetings one and all, and a slightly belated Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a good holiday season filled with much joy and many shiny new toys to take to the battlefield!

Today’s entry is about nothing specific, just some musings I’ve had and a momentous event that occurred while the blog was on hiatus over the holidays.

The first one is New Year’s resolutions. Usually I see these as the complete bollocks that they are. You say you’re going to quit smoking/drinking, give up chocolate, do work for charity etc and you feel really good about it. For a few weeks, if you’re lucky. And then you’re back at the pub, on a smoke break, eating a Twix or walking past the Charity Shop instead of going into it. People make these resolutions because other people do, and they think it’ll make them feel better about themselves…

Usually, they don’t…

But mine does! My resolution this year, is to get my stuff painted! All of it! Yes boys and girls, that’s over five thousand points of Space Marines, two thousand points of Imperial Guard, two thousand points of Dark Elves, and a smattering of Lord of the Rings and that’s BEFORE I add on the scenery for the gaming club I’m Secretary of, commissions and general one-off pieces because they’re cool models!

“Why now?” I hear you ask. Well, I have myself a Mega Paint set that I bought several years back, and still I have yet to use half the colours. So I have decided that not only will I get everything painted, I will try new mixes and colours on my models until every paint pot I own sits empty in a little pile in the corner of my room (though that could take a while…)

Second we have people who constantly change armies or army lists. I’m certain everyone who reads this blog knows someone who changes lists from game-to-game, and as such is never fully comfortable with an army. Do they change because they get bored, or because the army doesn’t work and they want the new uber unit of death from Warseer? Do they lose a lot? Does anything get painted? If you have any stories about people like this, e-mail me at theramblingwargamer@gmail.com.

Third and finally, we have the “momentus event” – the introduction of my girlfriend to the world of Warhammer. She’s a supportive type, though she never really understood how the game worked. Having watched me playing a game against a regular opponent, she bravely took to the table using an Iyanden Eldar army against a Razorback rush Blood Angels army. By turn 2, the game had started to swing against her and the thought running through my head was “she’s going to jump across the table and rip his throat out if he gloats…” but then something strange happened. The Blood Angels couldn’t kill a thing. Without a Psychic Hood for Psy-Defense, the Blood Angels couldn’t prevent the Wraithguard being Fortuned and the Wraithlords being Guided and as turn 5 came about, the Eldar were one Kill Point ahead – having beaten down the Blood Angels in Combat. And then “it” happened – an infamous moment that puts things in perspective.

Tycho and 5 Sternguard charged into an existing combat, did nothing, lost, and ran away…

The game ended at the end of that phase, Tycho and the Sternguard were removed as casualties because they were still fleeing, and the score went to Eldar 8, Blood Angels 5. Her opponent was surprisingly gracious considering his usual post-defeat moans of “I couldn’t roll anything but ones” or “the dice weren’t on my side.” Moans which I was sure would cause the until-recently 40k virgin to, as feared before, jump across the table and rip his throat out. Fortunately, it didn’t and everyone walked away happy…ish…

I have now run out of writing steam for today, but the blog will resume normal service next week as we enter the final phase of preparations for Throne of Skulls.